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Customer Reviews for California Data Corp

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Website: www.californiadatacorp.com

Phone: 800-882-8178

Email: support@datarecoverycorp.com

Address: 1140 N. Fairfax Ave

City: Los Angeles

Zip: 90046

State: CA, California

Country: USA


This company does NOT yet subscribe to our Trusted Merchant Member Program to monitor customer feedback & respond to customer issues.

Name: Dahlia23
Date: 6/20/2009
Comments:
The company I used to work for had their data backed up by this company a year ago and back then, the sales rep I talked to was also the one I gave the HD to in their N Fairfax address. From what I recall, they had excellent customer service but exorbitant to the point of highway robbery prices. Since I was not the one paying for it and due to time constraints - we continued with the transfer and from what I know, they managed to do the job. I didn't stick around to see if they recovered the files 100%. Fast forward to Saturday last week, I had my HD crashing on me and contacted this company for a quote. Instead of being talked to by someone in their CA office, I was 'taken care of' by Andy Anderson(andy@datarecoverycorp.com) who was in their OH office. I gave my HD to them on Tues and was told that Andy will give me a call on what the quote for the service will entail in one to two business days. I got a call from them on Wednesday and gave me a very high and exuberant price quote, I asked why and he told me a whole line of what was later found out to be technical bullshit and so blatantly obvious it makes my head shake. I then asked for Andy Anderson to give this quote to me via writing since I want proof that the price he gave me was the price that I'm gonna be paying. He told me "Sure, no problem". I waited for it and it didn't come. So I just decided to shop around and found a reasonable company who will try to retrieve it for less than the price these data recovery con artists tried to scam me out of. I then left a message the same day he gave me the quote and told him that I want to cancel the service order and pick up my HD. I left 4 messages yesterday and requested once again to cancel everything so that I can pick up my hardware; he replied to one of them by calling me to contact him and did so and got his voicemail again. This should have set off red flags that California Data Corp is a front for con artists and scams and can be seen as a black whole where your money goes into, but no data ever comes out. So I talked to another customer service rep who told me that they have left a note to him and will cancel the order since apparently, he was the only one who can do that. Did these people never heard of 'override by Manager' or something to that effect? I called once again today and was given the same runaround by two people by putting me on hold when I told them how unreasonable they are handling this matter. I then finally talked to Daniel Melnick and he basically told me the following: 1) As of Wednesday evening - Andy works from 4 AM - 2 PM EST(Why on earth would someone be working a graveyard shift at a "serious data recovery company"?? Definite red flags went off in my head that this was a scam again. He had a shift change when he was available up till 9 PM EST. I hope this was probably coincidental since it's not gonna cut it as unintentional comedy. 2) They don't email their customers any price quote since that's against company policy (that is very strange, I later found out from other data recovery outfits in Los Angeles that this company is well known and is definitely a scam, which is why they do not email out their price quotes). So another head shaking revalation coming from these people. He basically states that Andy is just a new customer service rep which is really not a reason since these folks do get training. He then gave me his word that he will email me and/or call me to speak to Andy so that he can cancel my service order. Anyway, after a couple of exchanges and me rejecting their offer to lower the price quote since I really can't deal with a company who sucks at customer service and charges you prices to the point of you submitting to let your data go to waste - they finally called me a few minutes ago and said that I can pick up my HD anytime. I guess they finally talked to Andy or they had someone override the system. So in closing, for those who took the time to read this - I would hope that you think twice before having your precious hardware serviced by this company. There are dime a dozens of them here in Los Angeles, try to get as many quotes as possible from those people. Regardless of how many clientele they give as reference, it really depends on how comfortable you are with the one you talked to and being given no fine prints on charges.
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Name: Fritz
Date: 6/4/2009
Comments:
Stay away from them. They promise you same week and disappear. never saw my data or money again. They say it's free if they don't recover and once they have the hard drive there they'll only return it for you if you pay $540 whether they fix it or not. this is the worst scam on the whole internet.
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Name: Allison
Date: 6/15/2009
Comments:
I sent in my laptop thinking I am dealing with highly trained and competent individuals who pride themselves on delivering superior customer service, or at least that is what I was told by the gentleman at this company. They told me it was going to be a hard case, but said if I pay, they will recover everything. Well guess what! After 6 weeks(!!!) and paying these scammers almost $900, I was told "too bad" and they sent me my laptop back. I sent it to another company and they told me no matter what, my hard drive is doomed, so there is nothing anybody can do!!!!!!!! Data Recovery Corp charged me for what?!?! If this is not a scam, I don't know what is....
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Name: WJet
Date: 7/15/2009
Comments:
Total Rip Off!!! If you have a clicking drive don't even bother sending it to them. Their marketing is to say that they can try recover and say they have a lab to repair the drive so it's readable. Total bull**** , got my drive back and it's still clicking so they pretty much did not fix it. Also once they say they send it to the lab, they ask you to buy a drive so that they can transfer the data to the new drive. Well, once you buy the drive you will get a call several weeks later and they will tell you they only recovered useless data. The worst part for me was that the drive I bought which I rarely used has already crashed within 6 months!!!
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Name: AM
Date: 5/5/2009
Comments:
I had a horrible experience with this company - RUN AWAY! I chose them b.c they said they knew MACS and b.c I live about 20 mins from the Fairfax office ad thought it would be quicker. I called - made appt - and dropped off the HD to recover EMAILS and PHOTOS. That was it - told the rep (Tony Robinson) that I did not need anything else and that emails were really most important thing. After MANY weeks of waiting (I had a month window and needed the emails for a court case) I finally discovered by talking to the tech that my drive was actually in Canada and that they had recovered my files. At this point they tell me I need a PC to look at the file names. I tracked a PC down only to discover the rep did not even tell them to look for the emails or photos but instead the techs spent weeks pulling USELESS info that I did not need, I had a court date getting close and started to panic. They did another recovery - another week - and emailed the info to me again. I was then told that on top of the $1000 I owed - that I owed an extra $150 to buy a hard drive from them. I have multiple hard drives and called to tell them I was dropping one off at the office (at 1140 N. Fairfax Ave, next to the dentists office, and California Data Corp looks like a small jail cell because it is tiny and definitelyd divded with a shrink there) on Wed. Was told it would take 24 hours by the guy there I told them I would pick up Fri am. On Thurs I was told I couldn't pick it up (that it would actually be quicker if they shipped it) and it could take 72 more hours b.c it had a mac partition on the hard drive which was slowing things down - WHAT??? I told rep I would be there on Tues am to pick up. On Mon I get an email that the hard drive has been shipped by UPS with a tracking #. GUESS WHAT? It was coming from Canada. That is why they wouldn't let me pick it up. And final straw - the rep had it shipped UPS 10 day ground service. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Called the manager (Ben S) to tell him how incompetent his sales rep was and he said he would call back in an hour but never did. I followed up with one more call but gave up. I would never recommend this company to anyone. Worst experience ever.
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Name: AnotherVictim
Date: 5/13/2009
Comments:
Please be cautious when working with this company. Note that their terms and conditions are NOT available on the website (link is dead) nor provided when initial contract is signed. In all my years in working in the IT industry, I have never seen such a blatan disregard for customers, this data recovery place really does not care about it's clients and is in business for a quick buck. Several discs were sent for recovery. From the start of the project, communication was misleading, difficult, and inaccurate. My team did not receive return calls or updates when requested. We received information that was negated by other operators. We were told discs shipped, when they had not. And the company wasn't able to see anything on our discs even after sending to a specialist in Canada. I have no confidence in this company for honesty nor technical competence. Upon receiving the discs back, thankfully, we purchased components on ebay and were able to download most of our data. My team spent well over 10 working days and $400 (to include freight) waiting for the experts to tell us they couldn't do anything.
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Name: DataRecoveryCorpVictim3
Date: 1/22/2009
Comments:
These people are complete high tech scam artists. Their websites are www.datarecoverycorp.com www.californiadatacorp.com and www.floridadatacorp.com . Basically all of these websites are slick looking and the customer service/sales people will try to pull you in to get your money, thats all they are after. After basically charging me $500 to tell me whats wrong with my drive, they gave me a BS diagnostic, and I sent it to a more reputable company and they gave me a real diagnostic and retrieve dthe data. These people will simply take your money and leave you out to dry, do not go to recover your data from them, Data Recovery corp is is a company run by scam artists. They are known as California Data Corp, Florida Data Corp, Data Recovery Corp, DB Investments, Data Recovery New York, Chicago Data Recovery Corp and many other names. Their main website is www.datarecoverycorp.com ; www.californiadatacorp.com ; www.floridadatacorp.com ; www.datarecoverynewyork.com ; www.chicagodatarecoverycorp.com. Do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from these slick talking snake oil salesmen, as they will just sell you hopes and dreams of getting your data, then give you nothing in return.
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Name: SharLez
Date: 8/12/2008
Comments:
I had the similar experience the other person had. Same exact prices quoted and dropped tremendously and unrealistic! I'm sorry I didn't check here 1st! I went to pick up my HD and they said it was sent to a lab a few hrs away and I would have to give notice b4 picking it up. It was my property!!!! I did not give anyone permission to take it anywhere in the 1st place, that's why I took it to a local place, right? The person there spoke to a "manager" on the phone in another language so I couldn't understand what they were presumably scheming about. I told him to look again for my HD. Someone named Tyler called my cell to negotiate a better price again and I said I would no longer do business w/ people who I couldn't trust. NEVER GO THERE!!!! I wouldn't have posted a start but didn't have a choice.
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Name: DavidCut
Date: 1/13/2009
Comments:
I had a terrible experience with this company. Terrifying, in fact. After backing up most of my data I re-imaged Windows on my hard disk then realized I forgot to backup some data. It was important so I wanted "experts" to deal with it instead of me messing things up. Because I wanted results quickly, I paid $215 for the expedited service. Instead of taking 3 days, it would take under 12 hours for the initial diagnostics. Well, I never got a call for 3 days and they were unreachable the entire time. I left messages on their phone demanding a call back. I called the main line and the guy who answered said he'd find out what was going on and call me back in 30 minutes. I never got a call back. I finally got a call after 3 days after which point I was fed up and just wanted to take the $215 loss and get my hard disk back ASAP. They explained there was a good chance the data could be recovered but it would take a few more days and around $800 since they need special software. I know that's BS because recovering data from a formatted partition is one of the simplest recovery procedures. So I said I wanted to pick my hard disk up directly from the lab (I live close by). Well, it took almost TWO WEEKS before they let me have my hard disk back (every time I called, they said it would be ready in a couple of days). The whole time I was scared I wouldn't get it back. I had no idea what kind of hooligans had my precious data at this point. This story has a happy ending though: my friend helped me recover my data in a matter of hours using a simple tool he had. No thanks to Data Recovery Corp aka California Data Corp though!
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Name: RodPle
Date: 9/23/2008
Comments:
At first this data recovery company seemed serious and professional. Once they had my hard drive, the promise of "no fix no charge" was gone. They would either bill me $540 regardless of fixing or not or they wouldn't return it to me. I told them that I was still thinking about data recovery and if I wanted to do it or not and would call them back later. When I decided to start the recovery process I gave them money and they disappeared. I called for a whole week and could never have anything but an answering machine and they wouldn't return the call. When I finally dialed for the top service to recover in one hour a guy picked up and that's when my nightmare started. now they refuse to even tell me whether it's recoverable or not before i pay another $540. Stay Away From Them, they are not a professional data recovery company.
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Name: GerKr
Date: 8/11/2008
Comments:
Unprofessional Data Recovery Company Do Not Use: I shipped my PC hard disk drive (HDD) to this company prior to reading the reviews. The HDD was shipped to the company in a box & packing designed for this hard drive. During the time the HDD was still in transit, I read the reviews and was alarmed at the number of negative reports, also, I noted one review indicating that the same company does business by two different names at two different street addresses, that are in fact the same location. I called the company and they confirmed the different names and address. During the same phone call, I requested that the company return my HDD upon receipt without conducting any work on the drive. I was assured that the company would not open the box my HDD was shipped in. A $25 shipping fee was paid to return my HDD which I have no issue with. Later that same day I received a confirmation phone call advising my HDD had just been received, and would be shipped back to me un-opened. My HDD was returned to me in a modified yellow DHL box shipped 'Ground Pepaid'. The DHL box had been manually mauled down to roughly the size of my HDD, in which the HDD had been wrapped in a couple thin layers of small bubble size, packaging bubble wrap. The HDD was loose (free floating) inside the DHL box. The exterior of the DHL box had been completely incased in packing tape in a apparent attempt to force the box to remain smaller than designed. Printed on the side of the DHL box is a advisory that says in part: Do not use this box for these services: The first service listed was Ground. I called the company this morning to complain. The company offered no explanation as to why my HDD had been repackaged [poorly] and, offered no remedies other than sending a note to their shipping department about my complaint. In summary: 1) My HDD was shipped to the company in a box & packing designed for HDD. 2) Although assured otherwise, my HDD was repackaged, poorly, and shipped back to me. 3) There is a high probability that my HDD has suffered mechanical damage secondary to this event.
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Name: RayF
Date: 10/23/2008
Comments:
My hard disk failure was rather innocent. Unit would not come up - a couple of clicks and it would not reach proper rpm levels. I trusted this company based upon recommendations of PPA (Professional Photographers of America). Shortly after the disk was received, I was requested to pay a non-refundable $245 to begin the process. A call 2 weeks later informed me that they could copy my files but couldn't open them (they're all simple jpeg files). I needed to authorize another $299 so that they could send it to their specialists in Canada who would probably be able to successfully retrieve my data. A call 2 weeks after that informed me that it was a total failure and did I want them to scrap my drive or return it to me... Please learn from my $544 mistake. Never Use California Data Corp!!! EVER!!!
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Name: JackMes
Date: 10/6/2008
Comments:
This company is a complete joke, not only did they not recover any of my data they charged me money which they would not return despite their if we dont get the data we wont charge you. Apparently they have been doing this for years according to other reviews, here is a good example of one: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/329/RipOff0329781.htm I guess it proves that you should do your research before buying into Data Recovery Corp's scams and schemes. I have sent in complaints to the attorney general and the better business bureau, along with contacting my credit card company to dispute the charges and validate data recovery corporation, california data corp, florida data corp, first all data services, db investments, or whatever else this company wants to call itself. Supposedly they have many locations, so that they need new names, which seems very strane to me, but their websites are www.californiadatacorp.com www.datarecoverycorp.com and www.floridadatacorp.com and they also have a supposed location in New York, although when I called the incompetent idiot I talked to (named Tyler) actually hesitated when I asked him where the location was.
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Name: OhioViktim
Date: 3/12/2007
Comments:
I've worked 13 years in the IT industry and unfortunately have had a need for such data recovery services about 4 times. The one thing I can say is that each time we've had to pay for it it's been expensive and still is. We recently came across a $299 data recovery advertisement by DB Investments ,Data Recovery Corp , Califronia DataCorp, Florida Data Corp, Data Recovery New York (www.datarecoverynewyork.com) or Data Recovery Ohio (they seem to have and operate under many monikers) only to send in our drive to find out it really wasn't anywhere near the advertised price. Their california location is 1140 N. Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles, CA. These guys are pure fraudsters with horrible customer service and aren't worth the $1700.00 they tried to scam me out of and I recommend staying away from this data recovery scam.
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Name: TBurnside
Date: 5/5/2008
Comments:
I would like to bring to your attention my sad saga with DataRecoveryCorp of California aka California Data Corp. On 16 May I called and explained to Dan Melnik the problem we were having with a WD hard drive that was shipped the next day. Melnik delineated the steps that California Data Corp would do to hopefully retrieve data on the drive; he quoted me a "Not To Exceed" price of $1,700 for the recovery; his estimate was five to six work days; Melnik advised me a "link" would be sent to enable me to monitor the repair progress-this never came; he suggested sending the drive plus another to lay the recovered data down on(which I did); and finally he issued a service tag number. The drive was sent to: 1140 N FAIRFAX AVE WEST HOLLYWOOD CA 900465307, Attention Dan Melnik, via FedEx. There was no mention of the drive being trans shipped to Cleveland. On 20 May I was requested by phone to make a "partial payment of $377.70 for the recovery" by Melnik; after this was paid, the FAX confirmation stated that the charge was for a Parts Repairment Fee, I still have no idea what that means. After seven working days I called California Data Corp. I was told that Melnik was unavailable and was given the status on the drive - "The recovery is still in process". A few days later California Data Corp was called, and again Melnik was unavailable. I spoke to "Russ". Russ told me the same story and when I requested that he pass me to his supervisor he asked why... I told him his information was insufficient and again asked to speak to a supervisor. He refused. Finally when I got through to Melnik he advised me the problem was due to recovery software that was not California Data Corp's having damaged the drive and he was asking their Canadian office to look at the recovered images. For everyone's information no recovery software other than theirs has ever been used on that drive. Later in the afternoon, I again spoke to Melnik and asked him to send my drives back to me. He advised me they were already on the way to me via DHL. He had never asked me how I wanted them returned or what service to use - I had sent them via Fed-Ex and my strong perference would have been two day service, never ground as the drives were shipped. I am offended by the shoddy customer service from California data Corp. If California Data Corp's British telephone voice is to be believed California Data Corp's service will be Rolls Royce. Instead, their customer service people led me on for nearly four weeks on a job they estimated to take five to six work days, they insulted my intelligence by claiming the drive had been damaged by someone else's recovery software which I know to be untrue, and when I asked to speak with a supervisor Russ refused - with attitude. Their company was unable to recover my data. I don't need to be insulted as well. I have disputed the charges with my credit card company, and have reported them to California and Ohio's attorney general for interstate wire fraud and for fraud in general. I hope everyone that ahs a bad experience with this company does the same, and posts it up on this website, together we can take these data recovery crooks down.
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Name: SanjayPalak
Date: 9/22/2008
Comments:
This company advertised a "no data recovery/no charge" policy for retrieval of data from my external WD hard disk that was not functioning properly. However, after they recieved my disk and performed a diagnostic they charged me a non-refundable amount of $300 withouth gauranteeing the data recovery. I agreed reluctantly because I thought if I did not say to go ahead with it that they would destroy my hard drive so that I would not be able to take it anywhere else. After they failed to retrieve the data, they suggested that they can send the disk to their specialist in Canada and asked me for another $199 non-refundable without gauranteeing data recovery. When I requested them to ship me back my disk it arrived in a total mess without being properly assembled. I think this company is playing with the consumer's emotions and the consumer's attachment to the data it want's recovered. They are charging all of these non-refundable fees and don't gaurantee any data recovery. If their specialist in Canada could retrieve the data, why did they not send it to him in the first place? I have been duped very badly and I want to see if you can investigate the practices of this company. This is serious. I don't want other consumers to get hurt like me. Also their customer service was horrible in the sense that they would not return my calls on time. Please do not use California Data Corp's disservice, as they will simply rip you off, and make sure you do your research before going with a data recovery company, because I know if I had found this site before I sent it to California Data Corp I would never have sent it to this Scam Artist Data Recovery Company.
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Name: MusicGuy
Date: 3/14/2008
Comments:
Said that "no charge unless your data is recovered" then after looking at the drive and quoting me about $500 for the job asked me for a non-refundable $300 to buy them equipment for the recovery that I had to pay for whether the data was recovered or not. When someone says "no charge unless your data is recovered" I assume they mean it. I was so taken aback by their inability to live up to their promise that I took my drive back- it's the reason I picked them in the first place. Don't go here unless you want to be lied to and perhaps ripped off.
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